


Charming Experiences

by knowlee_raven



Series: Claudleth A-Z [2]
Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Charmed AU, F/M, Poor Byleth is new to this whole "magic" thing, Slice of Life-esque, Some angst will involved, may be 'slife of life-esque' but it will have an overarching story, more tags shall be included as the story develops a bit more, rating will more than likely change due to later chapters
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-20
Updated: 2020-07-20
Packaged: 2021-03-05 01:48:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,063
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25406407
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/knowlee_raven/pseuds/knowlee_raven
Summary: It wasn't until a month ago, that Byleth figured out that she is destined to be the most powerful witch in existence after she accidentally unbound her powers that were sealed away by an unknown entity.Now with a strange girl that can only be seen by her as her new companion, along with time-manipulating powers, Byleth must navigate this new world she has been introduced to and hope she doesn't royally screw up something in the process.Charmed AU~~Also first chapter is for Claudeleth Week 2020 Day 2: Modern
Relationships: My Unit | Byleth/Claude von Riegan
Series: Claudleth A-Z [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1760710
Comments: 4
Kudos: 12
Collections: Claudeleth Week 2020





	Charming Experiences

* * *

A Fire Emblem Three Houses Fanfiction

Charming Experiences

Chapter 1: Encounters

By: Knowlee Raven

* * *

_'Hilda better be thankful I love her enough to do this, otherwise I'd tell her shove off.'_

With her feet pounding the pavement, 21-year-old Byleth Eisner made her way across the street, barely making it before the crossing light changed. But she was so focused on getting to her destination that she didn't even notice.

Just a few moments ago, she had received a text from her friend Hilda Goneril asking her to go and pick up a particular type of wine that was only sold at one store to use for a party that she was hosting that evening.

While normally she wouldn't mind helping the pink-haired woman out, she found herself slightly annoyed at this request. And the reason for it probably was because of the fact that the store was located outside of her normal path of travel. Plus after the day she had at work, Byleth desperately wanted to go home to relax before having to deal with more people.

She sighed. Oh, the things she did for the people she cared about.

**_“Oh, indeed. This Hilda person better pay you back for causing you such distress!”_**

Byleth jumped for a moment, catching the attention of some passerbys who gave her a strange look in return. She was about to turn her head to see who had spoken, when she remembered just who it was.

She sighed again. She had nearly forgotten about her. That was another thing to add that to her list of growing problems.

Byleth heard the voice huff in annoyance. **_“How dare you call me a problem? I'll have you know that I've saved your life countless times now. You ought to treat me with more respect!”_**

She decided to retort back, sarcasm practically oozing off her words. _'So you have reminded me, Sothis. Forgive me for not properly thanking you. But can you please let me be for now? I need a little bit of time to myself.'_

The woman could tell that she initially didn't want to give in to her request, but after a few moments, she begrudgingly gave in. Byleth breathed out slowly. Sometimes she wished she had never found that damn book.

The book in question being one that she found in her parents' old house that she had inherited from her father after his death just a little over a month ago. Her heart clenched as the feelings of sadness and heartbreak she thought she had buried down the day of the funeral came bubbling up again.

While Byleth knew that she would one day have the house in her possession, she had hoped it wouldn't be for a long, long time. But when she got that knock on the door from the police officer that was her father's partner telling her what had happened, her world crumbled.

Her father was murdered.

By whom, the police didn't know, nor did they find any leads pointing them in the right direction. They had tried, especially his partner, Alois, but no matter what they did, it was as if the murderer just disappeared.

And honestly, that's exactly what happened.

But she didn't know this until she found the book. A book that had apparently been passed down through her mother's family line for generations. A book that supposedly held information regarding the world of magic.

At first she scoffed at the idea of that existing. All her life she saw it as nothing more than just a thing people used as a plot device to tell stories, to entertain and trick people into following emotion instead of facts. Her father had even thought the same thing.

So when she first found it, she merely brushed it off as something her mom more than likely had just a passing curiosity in and kept it since apparently before she died shortly after giving birth to her, she was a lover of books and liked to collect them. But when she found the family tree etched into a page in the book and realized after researching that it matched up, she started looking into it a bit more.

Why would this book be considered important enough by her family to keep it, let alone put the family tree inside it's pages?

The first entries it had contained information about when the book was made and foretold a prophecy made by a being called the 'Immaculate One' about someone in her family line that would gain the powers of the Progenitor God and would become known as the Fell Star. This person would use their powers given to them by the Crest of Flames to face off against beings known as the Arganthans and would protect the innocent from those they tried to harm.

At first she thought it was a load of crap she was reading, but somehow deep down for some strange reason, she felt as if it were true.

Maybe that's what compelled her to read the spell that was supposed to “unlock” her powers.

Or maybe she just read it to appease her curiosity and when nothing happened like she expected it to, she'd confirm it to be just crazy stuff that one of her ancestors just wrote up when they were having a mood.

But when she woke up the next day and starting hearing strange voices and seeing a strange floating girl in her home, well..., needless to say, she freaked out.

At first she thought she was hallucinating and was at the halfway point to pulling out her phone and calling one of her friends to get their psychiatrist's phone number, when she accidentally stopped time after bumping into a nearby piece of furniture.

Yes, she said that right.

She stopped time.

Literally froze it in place.

Byleth recalled feeling shocked at what she saw going on in front of her and confused as to what was going on, but when time started back up again and the objects she knocked off shattered upon hitting the floor, a thought in the back of her mind popped up that maybe, just maybe magic was real…

She shook her head at the idea of it.

It didn't, _couldn't_ , exist.

But since the evidence showed that there was something there that then begged the question: was she was the one the prophecy talked about? And who the hell was the girl she saw?

Needless to say she spend the next month trying to figure just what it was she had gotten herself into.

She learned the girl's name was Sothis and apparently she was just as confused as she was to why only Byleth could see her and had no idea why she was attached to her. (Sothis had even tried to leave her to see if she could, but unfortunately they were stuck together.)

And if that wasn't enough, the other part of the prophecy, the one where she needed to fight against these guys called the Arganthans?

Well, that came shortly after.

Without ever meaning to sometimes, she would come across situations where they were the culprits behind them and because of her innate curiosity, and sometimes Sothis' insistence, she would use her powers and new found knowledge about magic to stop them.

And she was doing pretty good at it. Or at the very least, she was just _really_ lucky.

Her brain pulled itself out of its inner monologue when her eyes caught sight of the store Hilda had mentioned. _'Finally!'_ Maybe now she could get what she wanted and get out. Hopefully without running into anyone.

* * *

After asking someone who worked at the store to direct her to where it was located, Byleth began heading towards that area, determined to get what she came for and leave. The sooner she could get home to de-stress, the better.

Of course it didn't help that Sothis chose that moment to wake back up and start putting in her two gold's worth about all the different wines they were passing…

**_“I don't understand why you humans would want to drink stuff like this? It doesn't look very pleasant to me.”_**

Byleth tried her best to ignore her, but she wasn't getting much headway. She made a mental note to take some tension headache medicine once she got home. _'I understand it doesn't make much sense to you since you probably never have drank before, but sometimes we humans have to use this stuff to relax, especially with how crazy the world can be sometimes.'_

Sothis seemed to relent on that. **_“Well, that is true. Especially with the stress that I know you have been experiencing as of late, I suppose I can forgive you of partaking in this activity.”_**

Although she felt grateful that Sothis actually acknowledged her stress, she still felt the need to pop back at her. Maybe it was because she was still tense from her earlier experiences that it caused her to feel that way. Regardless, Byleth bit her tongue and forced herself to calm down. Sothis didn't deserve to be target of her ire.

Luckily for her, she spotted the sought after wine in the corner of her eye and noticed that it was the last one on the shelf. Byleth started to move over towards it as fast as she could.

But just before she was about to reach her goal, another hand appeared and grabbed the bottle.

Byleth's irritation was about to come to a fever pitch, but she forced herself to stay calm. Like Sothis, this person didn't deserve to be yelled at. She definitely didn't want to make a bad impression when that was far from who she was.

Her gaze shifted over to the person the hand belonged to and froze when she saw him. _'Damn, he's hot…'_

In the background, she could vaguely hear Sothis laughing.

Her eyes gazed over his face and nearly swooned at the chin he had. And the beard? _'Oh my…'_

Once Byleth heard Sothis' laughing growing louder, she quickly pulled herself together and decided to ignore both the green haired girls' humorous reaction and the stranger's good looks (as hard as that was to do), and pressed on. “Hi!” The man turned to look at her and she was momentarily stunned by his emerald eyes. How the hell did they look _that_ green? Sothis's cackling got even louder.

She was glad he couldn't hear her.

Byleth quickly pushed those thoughts aside. She still had a mission after all. “Are you going to get that bottle? I have a friend who sent me here to pick that up and apparently this is the only place that has it in the city. So, if possible, could I have it?”

Her heart fluttered when he smiled and sent a wink her way. “Well, what a coincidence! I have a friend who sent me her to get this too. Small world, isn't it?”

While she did find that funny that he was in the same position she was, she really needed to try and get that bottle. Hilda would kill her otherwise. “I suppose it is. So, I take your response as a 'no' on letting me have it?”

He frowned a bit, showing that she was, unfortunately, right. “I'm sorry. My friend would kill me if I didn't get it for her. They asked for it specifically.”

Disappointment filled her expression. Why wasn't she surprised…? “I see. Well, my friend would do the same if I didn't get it for her.” She sighed. Of course Hilda would ask for a more popular brand. How did she even get roped into this again?

Although she could feel his gaze on her, he was probably curious as to what she was thinking, she elected to ignore it and turned her attention on looking for the person she had spoken to earlier to see if they had any more in stock in the back. Once they came into her line of sight, Byleth started walking, quickly saying goodbye to the man while en route.

She didn't get to far though before the man was speaking again. “We could share the bottle.”

Confused, Byleth stopped. “I thought your friend needed it?”

She had to fight down a blush when he laughed cause it sounded so lovely. “What she doesn't know won't hurt her. Besides, I don't think she'll miss a few sips, nor will your friend, I would think.”

Byleth was still stuck wondering what he was trying to say when Sothis decided to help her out. **_“Oh, for the love of..., he is trying to court you!”_**

Court? What does she…? Byleth blushed. _'Oh…'_ He was asking her out on a date.

Byleth wasn't entirely sure of what to respond with as she could acknowledge that he was cute and she wouldn't mind going out with him, but at the same time Hilda really needed that wine and she didn't want to deprive her of any of it if it would help with her party.

At the same time though, she also knew Hilda would've kicked her ass if she didn't take the opportunity and wouldn't begrudge her if _this_ was how she lost the wine. If the woman was here, she would probably be _encouraging_ her to take him up on the offer.

So lost in though was she, that she failed to notice someone walking up nearby, not paying attention, and bump into her, causing her to lose her balance and hit a nearby table making a few of the other bottles of wine that were on sale fall off.

Before Byleth could reach out to catch them, she felt the familiar sensation of her power flowing through her, causing the air to feel like it was shattering and everything instantly froze in place.

She cursed. Shit, not again!

Based on Sothis's comment, she was glad to see that she wasn't the only one irritated at this. **_“Honestly! You would think you would have control of this by now! You do not need to let this power loose all the time!”_**

Her irritation built up again. “It's not like I was given instructions for how to control this!”

Sothis sighed, rubbing the side of her head in annoyance. **_“It should not be this difficult.”_**

She glared at the floating girl. “Look, I didn't give you crap for not even knowing your name when we first met, so don't give me crap about this!”

Sighing again, the girl complied. **_“I am sorry. It is just that I am frustrated that you cannot control this. Perhaps it is because I can't do it myself and I am projecting that onto you.”_** She floated over towards the man, amused at the scared expression he had frozen on his face. **_“You know you could take this bottle from him now, but that would definitely be something you cannot do with your power...”_**

Byleth sighed, remembering the 'no personal gain' rule that was stipulated in the book. If she were to use her power for that purpose, consequences would happen and with the way her life was going now, she didn't need to add more problems to it. 

“Well, since that isn't an option, could you help me figure this mess out?” She threw her hands out to emphasize the still frozen room and the fact that at any moment it would unfreeze and if she didn't react just right, either someone was going to notice something funny and the bottles that she knocked into were going to shatter.

**_“The solution to that problem is simple: just catch them just as time starts up and have it look as if you were in just the right position to do it.”_** Sothis floated over next to her and held up three fingers while pointing at the bottles with her other hand. **_“And apparently that time would be in 3...2….1...”_**

Byleth quickly moved herself into position and just as soon as Sothis ended the countdown, time restarted itself. She breathed out a sigh of relief when she just managed to catch the bottles before they could fall down any further and was even surprised to see another hand grasping onto one of them.

She only had to turn her head to the side to see the same man from before reaching to help her from keeping the bottles from breaking. Byleth desperately tried to hide her blush and instead stood up to replace the items back onto the table.

He spoke, mirth and concern evident in his voice. “Didn't peg you for a clumsy person. Are you alright?”

Letting go of the bottles, she turned to face him again. “I'm fine. Thank you for helping me.”

His smile was wonderful to see again. “No problem. So…, about that wine…?”

Before he could continue his spiel, Byleth decided to cut him off. It wasn't that she didn't want to take him up on his offer, she absolutely did, but after the little breakdown she had earlier with her powers, she wanted nothing more than to just go home. Hopefully he wouldn't take it too personally, but it was probably inevitable that it was going to happen since he didn't see that happen to her for himself.

Though, she couldn't help but feel disappointed that she may have lost a chance at ever seeing this man again. He was handsome after all. “I'm sorry, but no. Not that I don't appreciate it, but I don't want to take away something your friend was wanting after all. I'll just tell my own friend that I couldn't find it. She can't get mad at me for something they didn't have.”

He frowned. She could tell he was disappointed too, but to his credit, he didn't push it. “I see. That's fine then.” The smile returned to his face. “Perhaps we'll see each other again and without us having our friends get the way. Hopefully your friend won't be too mad.”

Byleth smiled. “She'll get over it.” She nodded her goodbyes and turned to leave, pulling out her phone in the process to text Hilda about the wine.

* * *

It wasn't until she was halfway home that she realized she could've gotten the man's number and spared herself the pain of possibly never seeing him again.

_Shit._

Damnit Byleth...

* * *

Although it wasn't _really_ all that surprising, but Byleth hit the nail on the head when she said Hilda would've been more upset at her lack of a boyfriend than at the wine not being given to her. As soon as she explained the full story of what had occurred, Hilda was more focused on that aspect. Sure, she still missed the wine, but her anger at Byleth not even thinking of getting the guy's number overpowered that. Eventually though she did drop the subject and let her off the hook with only a warning for the next time she saw him to get his number.

Regardless of what did and didn't happen, Byleth was grateful that she did get to have a few hours to herself before heading over to Hilda's. While she was a little nervous about the fact that there would be people there she didn't know, she felt comforted that two of her other friends, Leonie and Marianne had been invited along with her so there would be two other familiar faces in the crowd when she arrived. She could stick with them, especially in cases where Hilda would be busy taking care of her guests.

After being let into the apartment the woman lived, she took a look around to see if there was anyone else she recognized and to find the host of the party. In the back of her mind, she was glad that Sothis decided to sit this one out and had made the decision to just sleep through the whole thing. That was one less thing to worry about.

“Oh, Byleth, you made it!”

Her blue eyes caught sight of the pink-haired woman forcing her way through the mass of people and once she got close enough, she reached in to give her big hug. After pulling away, Hilda kept a hold of her hand and began dragging her deeper into the room. Eventually the two reached the kitchen, where Byleth saw a whole assortment of drinks sitting out on the island, some open and half empty and others left untouched. The sight caused her guilt about the day's earlier incident to resurface, but she resolved to stay silent. No need to bring up subjects that had already been talked about.

“Let's get you something to drink. Then you can go mingle with the crowd. You need to make up for your mistake from earlier.” Hilda let go of her hand to walk over to the other side of the room and began rummaging around looking for something to make for her.

Byleth blinked surprised. “My mistake?”

Hilda hummed as she continued looking through the conglomeration of bottles. Apparently she had yet to find what she wanted. “Yes, your mistake. You know the one with the guy from earlier...”

Her eyebrows furrowed together. “What...what does that have to do with this?”

For some reason there was a little voice in the back of her head, and she was absolutely certain it wasn't Sothis this time, telling her something was up. She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but Hilda was up to something.

Before she could ask her what was going on, Hilda apparently found what it was she was looking for and turned back to her with the bottle of wine in her hands. As Byleth was about to ask her what flavor it was, she stopped. That label looked familiar…. Where has she seen it before?

She froze. _Wait a minute..._

The bottle of wine was the same one Hilda had sent her out to get.

But there was only one left. How did she…?

Hilda's eyes lit up, staring past her and at someone immediately standing behind her. “Oh, hi, Claude! Glad to see you finally made it!”

Claude? Who was he?

Byleth turned and immediately saw the man from the store. Her blush returned full force. What was he doing here?!

Suddenly her brain put two and two together. It was Hilda. Hilda set this up!

“Well, fancy seeing you here.”

Byelth focused back in on the man, who's name she now knew was Claude. He was giving her that beautiful smile from earlier and it made her almost want to stop time just to etch it into her memory. She managed to just barely pull her mind back into reality to ask a question she just had to know the answer to. “I'm guessing your friend you mentioned was Hilda, wasn't it?”

Claude shifted his eyes over to the woman in question then back to her. “And she was yours?”

She nodded then turned her attention back to her with a quirked eyebrow that translated into _'we're gonna talk about this later'_. Hilda elected to ignore it however and began walking towards the them, putting the bottle into Claude's hand.

“You're probably gonna need this. You two have fun!” She ran off before either one of them could protest and ask her what she was doing.

After she was gone, the two of them stood awkwardly in the room for a few moments before Claude spoke up, breaking the silence. “Well then, looks like we'll get to share that wine after all.”

She laughed, the tension she felt from her earlier embarrassment melting away. “I suppose so.”

Claude returned the action. “That woman does have a way of getting things to happen.”

Byleth agreed. “That's for sure.”

With a grin on his face, she watched as he turned around to search for something to use to open the bottle before remembering what it was that she had wished she did when she first saw him.

She reached out to gently grab his arm, bringing his attention back to her. “Before I forget though, I mean to ask back at the store, but didn't, but… could I get your number?”

Claude chuckled, holding out his hand to take her phone. His beautiful green eyes gleamed with delight. “Thought you'd never ask.”

**Author's Note:**

> I'm throwing another AU at you. (I just _love_ making these things!)
> 
> Also this is part of Claudeleth Week 2020 and is for the theme of modern. Yes magic is still involved but since Charmed takes place in the modern world, I say it can work. *shrugs*
> 
> I'm not sure when I'll get around to posting the next chapter, but I will tell you guys that my plan for this fic is for each chapter to act as an "episode" so to speak hence why the tag that says it's slice of life-esque. So some time will pass in between chapters but there will be an overarching story as it goes on and will eventually reach a conclusion.
> 
> Plus I'm not revealing too much about it yet as I do want each chapter to be a surprise so.... no spoilers! :>
> 
> Until next time~!


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